Numerous industries produce exhaust air containing harmful particulates to the atmosphere and living beings. Such industries include, but are not limited to, automotive, wood products, laundry dryers, furniture manufacturers, copper manufacturers, aluminum producers, cement manufactures, foundries, plastics producers, PVC producers, chemical material producers, stationary diesel and turbine generators, power plants, tanning, inks and printing, paper products, paper mills, transatlantic vessels, trains, organic waste fired hospitals, refineries, rubber producers, transatlantic vessels, locomotives, medical plants, incineration plants, kitchen chimneys, odor creating industries, other industrial plants, etc. Such harmful particulates include, but are not limited to volatile organic compounds (V.O.C.s), nitrous oxide compounds (NOx), sulphur (SOx), mercury, phosphor, and carbon oxide compounds (CO). Additionally, when coal is burned, in some countries, radiation particulates are found to be a waste product.
Legislative efforts have established emission standards to control emission wherein these standards identify how much of a certain particulate may enter the atmosphere from an exhaust air stream. Current and future compliance with such standards places a continuing demand on industry and creates an ongoing need to reduce, degrade, and eventually destroy pollutants in exhaust air stream in a cost effective manner.
Many methods and systems are currently utilized to reduce particulates from entering the atmosphere. Such methods and systems include, but are not limited to, scrubbers, incineration techniques, exposure to ultraviolet light, mechanical filtering, electrostatic filtering, condensing heat exchangers, and etc. Even though many approaches are currently utilized to reduce harmful particulates, a certain amount of these harmful particulates still are released into the atmosphere.